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Want to ditch your online account? Shouldn't be a problem, right? Unfortunately, on many websites, including popular ones like Facebook, deleting your account can be a real pain. AccountKiller collects direct links and deleting instructions to make account termination easy. Websites like Skype that do not allow deleting your profile in an easy way at all get blacklisted. Luckily there are websites that do care about your online privacy.

"Google openly collects user data from its online services but not via apps for education, but there is concern that the online activity of teenagers is being analysed for targeted advertising."

The Cyber Safety Lady is Leonie Smith a cyber safety expert based in Sydney Australia. She gives internet safety advice and and eSafety talks and workshops for teachers, parents, children and business. A quarter of Australian children report they have been cyber bullied. Finding is impossible to keep up with your kids on technology? Do the children/students in your care have the right privacy settings on Facebook? Are your children protected from accessing adult content online? Are online Trolls affecting your business! Are your employees aware of what they are sharing online?

"This leads to an intriguing thought: that the young cyber-activists in Cairo are showing the rest of the world what it means to be a digital citizen. We, in the online safety community, have been promoting the idea and ideals of 21st century citizenship for a number of years. Simply put, we ask: How can we move the rights and responsibilities we take for granted in the offline world and move them into the online space? How can we encourage the equivalent of rushing to the scene of an accident or reporting a crime or getting involved in your local community when it comes to the online communities we increasingly inhabit? How can we promote new social norms of behavior in a seemingly rule-free, anything goes environment that much of the web seems to exhibit?"

"That training isn't just for the kids interacting on the site. Everloop also educates parents about how kids make use of social media channels. Parents can help shape the online experience for their kids, but they aren't allowed to participate in the tweens' space. Everloop is a Toolkit for Parents There is a growing trend toward use of monitoring for digital parenting. Location services can be buried deep in the firmware of smartphones and other mobile devices to allow parents to keep tabs on their kids. CheckPoint, an internet security firm, offers software to alert parents to patterns of destructive online behavior on Facebook without granting direct access to the content. Facebook itself has taken steps, including an upgrade to their Family Safety Center, to improve education and member reporting of destructive content. Everloop focuses on a user group younger than these technologies address."

"More and more, people are using Facebook to gather online, spark conversations, share information and ideas, and ultimately meet offline. Sometimes it's for a protest, sometimes it's for a party; sometimes it's in a country where discussions of public life are discouraged or even punished and sometimes it's in a country where freedom of speech is a part of life. Facebook is a potent tool, but to use it most effectively you should make sure that you're taking steps to minimize the chances of people seeing your communications who you do not want to see them. This guide offers steps for doing so. Follow it to organize more safely, but know that even if you do everything we point out here, you should still be cautious and skeptical when you're organizing online and take your online interactions offline as soon as it is possible (and safe) to do so!"

"The online environment is an integral part of modern economic and social activities, and a vast resource of education, information, communication and entertainment. Further, the evolution of new technologies is diversifying the ways in which Australians connect with each other and the world. As part of the Government's comprehensive commitment to cyber-safety, the Australian Parliament established this Committee in March 2010. This report focuses on how young people can be empowered and connect to the Internet, and use new technologies with confidence, knowing that they can use them safely, ethically and with full awareness of risks and benefits. The facilitation of safer online environments requires government, industry and the broader community to work together to realise the benefits of the online environment while also protecting Australians from dangers and enabling them to use existing and emerging tools to mitigate risks.  

"Most internet users would like to be anonymous online at least occasionally, but many think it is not possible to be completely anonymous online. New findings in a national survey show:"

This news article caught my eye as it is my old high school in Victoria! This type of media reporting is problematic - a typical negative report based on the need to have ultimate control. A more positive approach is for teachers to be modeling best online behaviour and being online in the same spaces as the students. The conversation needs to be about how to best represent yourself and your ideas online while being respectful to others.

Abstract: Children and young people are spending more time online. Face-to-face interactions with friends are being supplemented with digital communication. Australian children are particularly prolific users of the internet (Green et al, 2011). This online activity creates digital footprints. Digital footprint refers to the information and data that people generate, through purposive action or passive recording, when they go online (Thatcher, 2014). Digital footprints now play a role in people's employment and educational opportunities (Black and Johnson, 2010). In this context not having a digital footprint can be as serious as having a badly managed one. One way to address this is for schools to explicitly teach students how to develop positive digital footprints that will help, rather than hinder, them in the future.

"Journey into the world of contemporary online social interaction."

"The Australian Government's Easy Guide to Socialising Online provides information on how internet users can protect themselves and their information when using social networking sites, search engines and online games."

"Protecting kids online is no easy job, especially since the best way to keep them safe is to lessen the protectionist urge and empower them to explore at will."

"Data Dealer is an online game about collecting and selling personal data - full of irony and gleeful sarcasm. It´s a browser/serious/edu/impact game about digital culture and surveillance and aims to raise awareness about online privacy in a new and fun way. The English version was released in May 2013. Let's call it a bastard offspring of certain shiny 2010 Facebook Games and the 1990 TV simulation game Mad TV, reborn with the souls of South Park and Bruce Schneier. And it´s also available on Facebook! Oh, the irony. In today´s digital age virtually everything we do is recorded, monitored or tracked in some way: Data Dealer is a unique interactive exploration of this personal data ecosystem."

"A study last year revealed that nearly half of parents believe their teens tell them everything they do online, while 70 percent of teens revealed they have ways to avoid parental monitoring. In this fact lies the irony. Teens trick their parents in the following ways:"

"In this digital world, opportunities for education are available like never before. Though teachers using online tools are empowering students take part in their education, they may also expose them to inappropriate material, sexual predators, and bullying and harassment by peers. Teachers who are not careful with their use of the sites can fall into inappropriate relationships with students or publicize photos and information they believed were kept private. For these reasons, critics are calling for regulation and for removing social networking from classrooms -- despite the positive affects they have on students and the essential tools they provide for education in today's digital climate. "

Hence more reasons why teachers must be well read and prepared and willing to work with a team/committee to help solve the issues of safety, legality and ethical behaviours before working on their school DLE.

"Connect.ed is an innovative, self-paced cybersafety education program offered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) as part of Cybersmart. Connect.ed provides teachers with the flexibility of a self paced environment to learn about current online behaviours of students, potential risks involved in these activities, a teacher's and school's duty of care and the appropriate tools, resources and strategies to help students to have safe and positive experiences online."

One media review of the new Grade 6 cybersafety online course found here: https://www.digitallicence.com.au/home

"Published on 25 Sep 2013 Henry Sibley High School believes in educating students now for the digital realm of the future. This means being aware of the implications that today's online interaction can have down the road. This 15 minute video walks students through how to protect themselves online, and how to create and manage a positive digital footprint. Special Thanks to Azul 7, the University of Minnesota, and the Mendota Heights Police Department."